Updating time-related information in post to make it more relevant for the requester on subsequent retrieval of post

ABSTRACT

A method, system and computer program product for updating the time-related information in a post to make it more relevant for the requester on a subsequent retrieval of the post. A post with a reference to an event or activity (e.g., “leaving for Florida in 3 days”) is identified using natural language processing. Upon receiving a request from a requester to retrieve the post prior to the expiration of the event/activity, the post is updated by substituting a time countdown in the post with an up-to-date time countdown or with a current status of the referenced event/activity. If, however, the request is received after the expiration of the event/activity, then the post is removed or updated with an indication that the referenced event/activity has expired. In this manner, the requester will be receiving more accurate and relevant time-related information concerning the event or activity referenced in the post.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to social network services, andmore particularly to updating the time-related information (e.g.,updating the time to the occurrence of an event or activity) in a post(e.g., status update, microblog, text-based message) to make it morerelevant for the requester on a subsequent retrieval of the post.

BACKGROUND

A social network service is an online service, platform or site thatfocuses on building and reflecting of social networks or socialrelations among people (e.g., those who share interests and/oractivities). A social network service essentially consists of arepresentation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, anda variety of additional services. Most social network services are webbased and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such asby e-mail and instant messaging. Social networking sites allow users toshare ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individualnetworks.

Social networking sites (e.g., Facebook®) present to a particular userthe posts by other users in a social networking feed often referred toas an “activity stream.” “Posts” can include text (e.g., comments,sub-comments and replies), audio, video images, etc. Often, these postsinclude a timeframe for the occurrence or completion of an event oractivity. For example, the post of “traveling to Boston on Tuesday”indicates that the poster will be traveling to Boston on Tuesday. Inanother example, the post of “going to lunch—back in 30 minutes”indicates that the poster will be back from lunch in 30 minutes from thetime of the posting of the post. In a further example, the post of“graduating in 3 days” indicates that the poster will be graduating inthree days from the time of the posting of the post.

Currently, social networking sites do not update the status or timeframefor the occurrence or completion of these events or activities. Hence,when a requester requests the retrieval of a user's profile or user'sactivity stream that includes the post with time-related information,the post will continue to include the time information that the posteroriginally posted even though such information is outdated. For example,suppose that a requester is a follower of the poster who retrieves theiractivity stream that includes a post made yesterday that states that theposter will be “graduating in 3 days.” However, since the post was madeyesterday, the poster will not be graduating in three days but in twodays.

As a result, posts with time-related information that are laterretrieved by other users will not include up-to-date timing or statusinformation for the occurrence or completion of an event or activitymentioned in the post that would make the post more accurate andrelevant for the requester.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for updating a postwith time-related information to make it more relevant to a requester onsubsequent retrieval of the post comprises identifying a post with areference to an event or activity using natural language processing. Themethod further comprises extracting a time the post was initially postedand an identification of the referenced event or activity from theidentified post. The method additionally comprises extracting a timecountdown from the identified post and/or metadata associated with thereferenced event or activity comprising time-related information of thereferenced event or activity. Furthermore, the method comprises storingthe post, the extracted time the post was initially posted, theextracted identification of the referenced event or activity as well asthe extracted time countdown and/or the extracted metadata associatedwith the referenced event or activity. Additionally, the methodcomprises identifying a current time in response to a request toretrieve the post from the requester. In addition, the method comprisesupdating the stored post by substituting the extracted time countdownwith an up-to-date time countdown or updating the stored post with acurrent status of the extracted referenced event or activity. The methodfurther comprises providing, by a processor, the updated post to therequester.

Other forms of the embodiment of the method described above are in asystem and in a computer program product.

The foregoing has outlined rather generally the features and technicaladvantages of one or more embodiments of the present invention in orderthat the detailed description of the present invention that follows maybe better understood. Additional features and advantages of the presentinvention will be described hereinafter which may form the subject ofthe claims of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained when thefollowing detailed description is considered in conjunction with thefollowing drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a social network system configured in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a hardware configuration of a social network serverconfigured in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;and

FIGS. 3A-3B are a flowchart of a method for updating a post withtime-related information to make it more relevant to a requester onsubsequent retrieval of the post in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention comprises a method, system and computer programproduct for updating the time-related information in a post to make itmore relevant for the requester on a subsequent retrieval of the post.In one embodiment of the present invention, a post with a reference toan event or activity (e.g., “leaving for Florida in 3 days”) isidentified using natural language processing. The time that the post wasinitially posted, an identification of the referenced event or activity(e.g., “leaving for Florida”) as well as a time countdown (if includedin the post) (e.g., “3 days”) is extracted from the post. Furthermore,metadata associated with the referenced event or activity (e.g., starttime, end time, an identifier (e.g., Uniform Resource Locator (URL)),and a description (e.g., title)) is extracted if such information isavailable. The post and the extracted information are stored. Uponreceiving a request from a requester to retrieve the post, the storedpost is updated by substituting the extracted time countdown with anup-to-date time countdown (e.g., initial post of “leaving for Florida in3 days” may be updated with the post of “leaving for Florida in 2 days”to reflect the fact that a day has transpired since the initial postingof the post) or updating the stored post with a current status of thereferenced event or activity (e.g., initial post of “getting ready forsales meeting in 2 hours” may be updated with the post of “in salesmeeting” to reflect the fact that more than two hours has transpiredsince the initial posting of the post but the end time of the meetinghas not yet been reached) if the time countdown or the end time of thereferenced event or activity has not expired. If, however, the timecountdown or the end time of the referenced event or activity hasexpired, then the post is removed, such as from the user's profile pageor from the user's activity stream, or updated with an indication thatthe time countdown has expired or that the end time of the referencedevent or activity has expired (e.g., initial post of “leaving forFlorida in 3 days” may be updated with the post of “left for Florida” toreflect the fact that more than three days has transpired since theinitial posting of the post) based on the procedures for handling postswhen the time countdown expires or when the referenced event or activityexpires. In this manner, the requester will be receiving more accurateand relevant time-related information concerning the event or activityreferenced in the post.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth toprovide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, itwill be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present inventionmay be practiced without such specific details. In other instances,well-known circuits have been shown in block diagram form in order notto obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. For the mostpart, details considering timing considerations and the like have beenomitted inasmuch as such details are not necessary to obtain a completeunderstanding of the present invention and are within the skills ofpersons of ordinary skill in the relevant art.

Referring now to the Figures in detail, FIG. 1 illustrates a socialnetwork system 100 configured in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. Referring to FIG. 1, social network system 100includes a community of users using client devices 101A-101C (identifiedas “Client Device A,” “Client Device B,” and “Client Device C,”respectively, in FIG. 1) to be involved in social network system 100.Client devices 101A-101C may collectively or individually be referred toas client devices 101 or client device 101, respectively. Client device101 may be a portable computing unit, a Personal Digital Assistant(PDA), a smartphone, a laptop computer, a mobile phone, a navigationdevice, a game console, a desktop computer system, a workstation, anInternet appliance and the like.

Client devices 101 may participate in a social network by communicating(by wire or wirelessly) over a network 102, which may be, for example, alocal area network, a wide area network, a wireless wide area network, acircuit-switched telephone network, a Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM) network, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)network, a WiFi network, an IEEE 802.11 standards network, variouscombinations thereof, etc. Other networks, whose descriptions areomitted here for brevity, may also be used in conjunction with system100 of FIG. 1 without departing from the scope of the present invention.

System 100 further includes a social network server 103, which may be aweb server configured to offer a social networking and/or microbloggingservice, enabling users of client devices 101 to send and read otherusers' posts. “Posts,” as used herein, include a status update,microblog or text-based message that includes any one or more of thefollowing: text (e.g., comments, sub-comments and replies), audio, videoimages, etc. A user of client device 101 that posts or sends a post issaid to be a “poster.” A user of client device 101 that requests toretrieve a post issued by the poster is said to be a “requester.” Socialnetwork server 103 is connected to network 102 by wire or wirelessly.While FIG. 1 illustrates a single social network server 103, it is notedfor clarity that multiple servers may be used to implement the socialnetworking and/or microblogging service. A description of the hardwareconfiguration of social network server 103 is provided below inconnection with FIG. 2.

System 100 is not to be limited in scope to any one particular networkarchitecture. System 100 may include any number of client devices 101,networks 102 and social network servers 103.

Referring now to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 illustrates a hardware configuration ofsocial network server 103 (FIG. 1) which is representative of a hardwareenvironment for practicing the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2,social network server 103 has a processor 201 coupled to various othercomponents by system bus 202. An operating system 203 runs on processor201 and provides control and coordinates the functions of the variouscomponents of FIG. 2. An application 204 in accordance with theprinciples of the present invention runs in conjunction with operatingsystem 203 and provides calls to operating system 203 where the callsimplement the various functions or services to be performed byapplication 204. Application 204 may include, for example, a program forupdating the time-related information (e.g., updating the time to theoccurrence of an event or activity) in a post (e.g., status update,microblog, text-based message) to make it more relevant for therequester on a subsequent retrieval of the post, as discussed furtherbelow in association with FIGS. 3A-3B.

Referring again to FIG. 2, read-only memory (“ROM”) 205 is coupled tosystem bus 202 and includes a basic input/output system (“BIOS”) thatcontrols certain basic functions of social network server 103. Randomaccess memory (“RAM”) 206 and disk adapter 207 are also coupled tosystem bus 202. It should be noted that software components includingoperating system 203 and application 204 may be loaded into RAM 206,which may be social network server's 103 main memory for execution. Diskadapter 207 may be an integrated drive electronics (“IDE”) adapter thatcommunicates with a disk unit 208, e.g., disk drive. It is noted thatthe program for updating the time-related information in a post to makeit more relevant for the requester on a subsequent retrieval of thepost, as discussed further below in association with FIGS. 3A-3B, mayreside in disk unit 208 or in application 204.

Social network server 103 may further include a communications adapter209 coupled to bus 202. Communications adapter 209 interconnects bus 202with an outside network (e.g., network 102 of FIG. 1) thereby allowingsocial network server 103 to communicate with client devices 101.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” ‘module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, amagnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium maybe any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use byor in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the C programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of thepresent invention. It will be understood that each block of theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations ofblocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can beimplemented by computer program instructions. These computer programinstructions may be provided to a processor of a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to product a machine, such that the instructions,which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus, create means for implementing thefunction/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the function/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

As stated in the Background section, social networking sites (e.g.,Facebook®) present to a particular user the posts by other users in asocial networking feed often referred to as an “activity stream.”“Posts” can include text (e.g., comments, sub-comments and replies),audio, video images, etc. Often, these posts include a timeframe for theoccurrence or completion of an event or activity. For example, the postof “traveling to Boston on Tuesday” indicates that the poster will betraveling to Boston on Tuesday. In another example, the post of “goingto lunch—back in 30 minutes” indicates that the poster will be back fromlunch in 30 minutes from the time of the posting of the post. In afurther example, the post of “graduating in 3 days” indicates that theposter will be graduating in three days from the time of the posting ofthe post. Currently, social networking sites do not update the status ortimeframe for the occurrence or completion of these events oractivities. Hence, when a requester requests the retrieval of a user'sprofile or user's activity stream that includes the post withtime-related information, the post will continue to include the timeinformation that the poster originally posted even though suchinformation is outdated. For example, suppose that a requester is afollower of the poster who retrieves their activity stream that includesa post made yesterday that states that the poster will be “graduating in3 days.” However, since the post was made yesterday, the poster will notbe graduating in three days but in two days. As a result, posts withtime-related information that are later retrieved by other users willnot include up-to-date timing or status information for the occurrenceor completion of an event or activity mentioned in the post that wouldmake the post more accurate and relevant for the requester.

The principles of the present invention provide a means for updating thetime-related information (e.g., updating the time to the occurrence ofan event or activity) in a post (e.g., status update, microblog,text-based message) to make it more relevant for the requester on asubsequent retrieval of the post as discussed further below inassociation with FIGS. 3A-3B.

FIGS. 3A-3B are a flowchart of a method 300 for updating a post withtime-related information to make it more relevant for a requester onsubsequent retrieval of the post in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. “Time-related” information, as used herein, refers toa duration of time for an event or activity to occur or be completed,including, but not limited to, a time countdown. A “time countdown,” asused herein, refers to a duration of time (e.g., three days) specifiedin the post for an event or activity to occur or be completed.

Referring now to FIG. 3A, in conjunction with FIGS. 1-2, in step 301,social network server 103 identifies a post that includes a reference toan event or activity, where the post may or may not include a specifictime countdown, using natural language processing. Examples of poststhat include a time countdown, include, but not limited to, “leaving forFlorida in 3 days” or “3 days until graduation.” A set of patternsrepresenting time countdowns may be identified in the posts usingnatural language processing, such as the patterns of “in <x><units>” or“<x><units> until,” where <x> is a value, such as a positive number.Examples of posts that reference an event or activity without includinga time countdown, include, but not limited to, “getting ready for teammeeting,” and “listening to a sales presentation.” While such referencesmay not include a specific time countdown, such events or activities maybe scheduled in the poster's calendar. As a result, as will be discussedfurther below, social network server 103 may be able to obtaintime-related information associated with these references to events oractivities that do not include a specific time countdown by linkingthrough analytics to the poster's calendar to extract time-relatedinformation, such as the start time, the end time, an identifier (e.g.,Uniform Resource Locator (URL)), and a description (e.g., title) of thereferenced event or activity. A set of patterns representing referencesto events or activities that do not include a specific time countdownmay be identified in the posts using natural language processing, suchas the patterns of “listening to <event>,” “preparing for <event>,” or“meeting with <person>.”

In step 302, social network server 103 extracts the time that the post(post identified in step 301) was initially posted, an identification ofthe referenced event or activity (e.g., the term “meeting” in the post,the action “leaving for” in the post) as well as a time countdown (ifincluded) from the posted identified in step 301. For example, in thepost “leaving for Florida in 3 days,” social network server 103 mayextract the time that the post “leaving for Florida in 3 days” wasinitially posted by the poster. Social network server 103 may alsoextract the identification of the event/activity (e.g., “leaving forFlorida”) and the time countdown (e.g., “3 days”) from the post.

In step 303, social network server 103 extracts metadata associated withthe referenced event or activity, such as the start time, the end time,an identifier (e.g., Uniform Resource Locator (URL)), and a description(e.g., title) of the referenced event or activity if such information isavailable to be extracted. As discussed above, such metadata may beextracted from the poster's calendar entry associated with thereferenced event or activity.

In step 304, social network server 103 stores the post along with theextracted information (e.g., information extracted in steps 302 and303), such as in disk unit 208.

In step 305, a determination is made by social network server 103 as towhether it received a request to retrieve the post (post identified instep 301 and stored in step 304) from a requester. For example, therequester may request retrieval of the post via a request for retrievingthe user's profile page containing the post or via a request forretrieving the user's activity stream containing the post.

If social network server 103 has not received a request to retrieve thepost, then social network server 103 continues to determine whether itreceived a request to retrieve the post in step 305.

If, however, social network server 103 receives a request to retrievethe post, then, in step 306, social network server 103 identifies thecurrent time.

In step 307, a determination is made by social network server 103 aswhether the time countdown expired or the end time of the referencedevent or activity has expired in light of the current time. For example,if the user posted a post that indicated that the user was “leaving forFlorida in 2 hours” and more than two hours has transpired since theinitial posting of the post, then the time countdown of “2 hours” haselapsed or expired. In another example, if a user posted a post thatindicated that the user was “getting ready for the meeting” and theuser's calendar indicates that the meeting is from 1:00-2:00 pm, thenthe end time of the referenced event or activity has expired if thecurrent time is past 2:00 pm.

If the time countdown or the end time of the referenced event oractivity has not expired, then, in step 308, social network server 103updates the stored post by substituting the time countdown of the storedpost with an up-to-date time countdown or updates the stored post with acurrent status of the event or activity. For example, the poster'sinitial post of “leaving for Florida in 3 days” may be updated with thepost of “leaving for Florida in 2 days” to reflect the fact that a dayhas transpired since the initial posting of the post. In anotherexample, the poster's initial post of “getting ready for sales meetingin 2 hours” may be updated with the post of “getting ready for salesmeeting in 1 hour” to reflect the fact that an hour has transpired sincethe initial posting of the post. In a further example, the poster'sinitial post of “getting ready for sales meeting in 2 hours” may beupdated with the post of “in sales meeting” to reflect the fact thatmore than two hours has transpired since the initial posting of the postbut the end time of the meeting has not yet been reached (i.e.,expired). In this manner, the requester will be receiving more accurateand relevant time-related information concerning the event or activityreferenced in the post.

In step 309, social network server 103 provides the updated post to therequester. In one embodiment, the requester (user of client device 101)may additionally receive the extracted time-related information (e.g.,time countdown, end time for the completion of the event or activity)thereby allowing the requester to dynamically update the post with thecurrent time-related information without retrieving the post from socialnetwork server 103. Client device 101 has a hardware configurationsimilar to social network server 103 as shown in FIG. 2 (may furtherinclude various input/output devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, displayand keyboard), such as a memory for storing an application forperforming such updates as well as a processor for executing theinstructions of the application. The aspects of the present invention insuch an embodiment may be embodied as a system, method or computerprogram product as discussed herein.

If, however, the time countdown or the end time of the referenced eventor activity has expired, then, in step 310, social network server 103identifies the procedure to handle the post when the time countdownexpires or when the referenced event or activity expires. Variousprocedures may be used to handle the situation when the time countdownhas expired or when the end time of the event or activity has transpired(i.e., expired), such as removing the post from the user's profile pageor from the user's activity stream or updating the post to indicate thatthe time countdown has expired or that the end time of the event oractivity has expired (i.e., the event or activity has already occurred).Such handling procedures may be established or overridden (in the caseof default procedures) by the user (i.e., the poster).

Referring now to FIG. 3B, in conjunction with FIGS. 1-2, in step 311, adetermination is made by social network server 103 as to whether thepost is to be removed, such as removed from the user's profile page orfrom the user's activity stream.

If the post is to be removed, then, in step 312, social network server103 removes the post, such as from the user's profile page or from theuser's activity stream.

If, however, the post is not to be removed, then, in step 313, socialnetwork server 103 updates the stored post with an indication that thetime countdown has expired or that the end time of the referenced eventor activity has expired. For example, the poster's initial post of“leaving for Florida in 3 days” may be updated with the post of “leftfor Florida” to reflect the fact that more than three days hastranspired since the initial posting of the post. In another example,the poster's initial post of “getting ready for sales meeting in 2hours” may be updated with the post of “done with sales meeting” toreflect the fact that the end time of the meeting has been reached(i.e., expired). In this manner, the requester will be receiving moreaccurate and relevant time-related information concerning the event oractivity referenced in the post.

In step 314, social network server 103 provides the updated post to therequester.

In some implementations, method 300 may include other and/or additionalsteps that, for clarity, are not depicted. Further, in someimplementations, method 300 may be executed in a different orderpresented and that the order presented in the discussion of FIGS. 3A-3Bis illustrative. Additionally, in some implementations, certain steps inmethod 300 may be executed in a substantially simultaneous manner or maybe omitted.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer program product embodied in anon-transitory computer readable storage medium for updating a post withtime-related information to make it more relevant to a requester onsubsequent retrieval of the post, the computer program productcomprising the programming instructions for: identifying a post with areference to an event or activity using natural language processing;extracting a time said post was initially posted and an identificationof said referenced event or activity from said identified post;extracting a time countdown from said identified post and/or metadataassociated with said referenced event or activity comprisingtime-related information of said referenced event or activity; storingsaid post, said extracted time said post was initially posted, saidextracted identification of said referenced event or activity as well assaid extracted time countdown and/or said extracted metadata associatedwith said referenced event or activity; identifying a current time inresponse to a request to retrieve said post from said requester,updating said stored post by substituting said extracted time countdownwith an up-to-date time countdown or updating said stored post with acurrent status of said extracted referenced event or activity; andproviding said updated post to said requester.
 2. The computer programproduct as recited in claim 1, wherein said metadata comprises one ormore of the following: a start time, an end time, an identifier and adescription of said referenced event or activity.
 3. The computerprogram product as recited in claim 2, wherein said metadata isextracted from a calendar entry associated with said referenced event oractivity.
 4. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, whereinsaid retrieval of said post is in connection with a retrieval of auser's profile page containing said post.
 5. The computer programproduct as recited in claim 1, wherein said retrieval of said post is inconnection with a retrieval of a user's activity stream containing saidpost.
 6. The computer program product as recited in claim 1 furthercomprising the programming instructions for: identifying a procedure tohandle said post in response to said time countdown expiring or inresponse to an end time of said referenced event or activity expiring.7. The computer program product as recited in claim 6 further comprisingthe programming instructions for: removing said post from a user'sprofile page or from a user's activity stream based on said identifiedprocedure.
 8. The computer program product as recited in claim 6 furthercomprising the programming instructions for: updating said stored postwith an indication that said time countdown expired or said end time ofsaid referenced event or activity expired based on said identifiedprocedure.
 9. A system, comprising: a memory unit for storing a computerprogram for updating a post with time-related information to make itmore relevant to a requester on subsequent retrieval of the post; and aprocessor coupled to said memory unit, wherein said processor,responsive to said computer program, comprises: circuitry foridentifying a post with a reference to an event or activity usingnatural language processing; circuitry for extracting a time said postwas initially posted and an identification of said referenced event oractivity from said identified post; circuitry for extracting a timecountdown from said identified post and/or metadata associated with saidreferenced event or activity comprising time-related information of saidreferenced event or activity; circuitry for storing said post, saidextracted time said post was initially posted, said extractedidentification of said referenced event or activity as well as saidextracted time countdown and/or said extracted metadata associated withsaid referenced event or activity; circuitry for identifying a currenttime in response to a request to retrieve said post from said requester,circuitry for updating said stored post by substituting said extractedtime countdown with an up-to-date time countdown or updating said storedpost with a current status of said extracted referenced event oractivity; and circuitry for providing said updated post to saidrequester.
 10. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein said metadatacomprises one or more of the following: a start time, an end time, anidentifier and a description of said referenced event or activity. 11.The system as recited in claim 10, wherein said metadata is extractedfrom a calendar entry associated with said referenced event or activity.12. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein said retrieval of saidpost is in connection with a retrieval of a user's profile pagecontaining said post.
 13. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein saidretrieval of said post is in connection with a retrieval of a user'sactivity stream containing said post.
 14. The system as recited in claim9, wherein said processor further comprises: circuitry for identifying aprocedure to handle said post in response to said time countdownexpiring or in response to an end time of said referenced event oractivity expiring.
 15. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein saidprocessor further comprises: circuitry for removing said post from auser's profile page or from a user's activity stream based on saididentified procedure.
 16. The system as recited in claim 14, whereinsaid processor further comprises: circuitry for updating said storedpost with an indication that said time countdown expired or said endtime of said referenced event or activity expired based on saididentified procedure.